Homemade Turnip Cake for Chinese New Year

Last Chinese new year, my colleague and I tried a homemade recipe of the traditional CNY food - Trunip Cake. Somehow I lost my original handwritten recipe, but so glad that my colleague has put it up on her website. So now I have have it in the cyberspace !

It is indeed tasty and rich in flavor, unlike those "read-made cake" you buy at restaurants... Think I'll try it again this year ....

~~~**~~~**~~~ Turnip Cake ~~~**~~~**~~~

ingredients :~ 4 catty turnip~ 1 catty rice flour~ salt~ 10 chinese mushrooms~ dried shrimps~ chinese bacon or sausage~ dried scallops (optional)~ fried shallots (optional)

steps :

1. grate turnip (suggest not too fine)

2. put grated turnip (leaving enough turnip juice to just cover) into boiler and cook until soft

3. heat up a little oil in a pan and fry diced mushrooms, dried shrimps, chinese bacon/sausage and dried scallops

4. transfer (3) into (2) and continue to cook some more. add enough salt to taste

5. remove (4) from heat, slowly add in rice flour and mix in one direction until mixture is quite heavy and a bit difficult to stir (see picture above)

6. transfer into steaming tray and steam with medium/high heat for 1 hour

7. (optional) sprinkle fried shallots on top just before you switch off the heat

notes :
~ the 4 : 1 ratio of turnip : rice flour is for reference only when you buy the ingredients. slowly add in the rice flour into the turnip mixture to achieve the ideal consistency
~ the ingredients above should make 3 round trays of about 7 inches diameter each
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